Abstract
This study examines the vertical variations of cloud microphysical relationships and their implications to cloud microphysical processes in marine stratocumulus clouds using in-situ aircraft observations during the Aerosol and Cloud Experiments in Eastern North Atlantic (ACE-ENA) field campaign. A new diagram with a coordinate system based on cloud droplet liquid water content (Lc) and phase relaxation time scale is proposed to investigate mixing mechanisms. This new diagram analysis shows that the inhomogeneous mixing trait is dominant near the cloud top, but homogeneous mixing trait is stronger at lower altitudes. The relevant scale parameters (i.e., transition length scale and transition scale number) also indicate a high likelihood of inhomogeneous mixing. The relationship between Lc and standard deviation of droplet radius (σR) clearly shows the vertical transition: the correlation between Lc and σR is positive at lower cloud altitudes, but it becomes negative as altitude increases. Such a vertical transition is consistent with the vertical circulation mixing, modulating the cloud microphysical relationships to suggest homogeneous mixing at a significant depth from the cloud top.
Original language | English |
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Article number | e2021JD034700 |
Journal | Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres |
Volume | 126 |
Issue number | 24 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2021 Dec 27 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (No.NRF‐2021R1A2B5B02002458). Additional support was received from the DOE Atmospheric System Research (ASR) program (award numbers DE‐SC0020052, DE‐SC0020053, and contract number DE‐SC0012704). Lu is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41822504).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021. The Authors.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Atmospheric Science
- Geophysics
- Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)
- Space and Planetary Science